Scottsdale

 

Traveling to Phoenix to see Penn State play in the Fiesta Bowl gave us an excuse to visit Scottsdale in the winter (70 degrees!).  We love visiting Scottsdale, with great scenery, restaurants and weather.  This time we visited Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West, which was his winter home and studio.  The 60-minute self-guided tour was excellent.  Afterwards, we visited his beautiful Arizona Biltmore hotel, which is an incredible example of this architectural style.  The tiny Scottsdale Historical Museum is definitely worth a visit, with a great chronological history of the town.  

Biltmore lobby bar

Arizona Biltmore

Taliesin West

There is an abundance of brunch places in Scottsdale, serving brunch 7 days a week: Canal Club at the Scott Resort had a great Cuban breakfast sandwich. The Daily Dose serves an excellent breakfast, pork green chili omelet was really good, the bacon Benny was excellent, and the cinnamon roll pancake for dessert was incredible.  The Breakfast Club is very popular, and it’s obvious why.  

There are dozens of outdoor bars in Old Town, including Pour Decisions, and at The Mission Old Town, next to the Old Adobe Mission church.   At the Mexican restaurant Cien Agaves, the queso dip is amazing.  We had an exceptional meal at Scott Conant’s The Americano, trying the black truffle polenta, wagyu Bolognese, spaghetti a la nerana.